Poland’s Education Ministry: keep gay propaganda out of schools

Poland‘s Education Ministry has proposed a bill that would prohibit sexual minorities activist groups from school premises.

To make sure that students are not approached by activists promoting minority sexual preferences on school grounds, Polish Ministry of Education has prepared a bill, according to which school headmasters risk disciplinary dismissal for allowing this kind of propaganda in public schools. The proposition has sparked discussion over the access of gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minorities activists to school aged children.

The proposed legislation aims to keep the freedom and rights of parents to bring up their children according to their chosen value system, and homosexual agenda at schools is a threat to that freedom, explains Krzysztof Bosak of the League of Polish Families minor coalition party, listing examples that he finds worrying:

‘In Canada we can see courts depriving parents of the right to opt out of homosexual propaganda classes for their children. We saw a man arrested because he went to the school headmaster to ask for exclusion of his child of such classes. In England a program was devised for children to learn gay and lesbian history, which had very little to do with history or science and everything to do with an ideology that is harmful to children. And in Poland homosexual activists have tried to distribute very obscene leaflets to school children. This needs to be stopped, for the sake of our children, their safety and freedom from this kind of harassment.’

But the reason that gay activists target school children is just consciousness raising, responds Artur Jedyński of the Lambda Association:

‘In our educational system in Poland issues covering this subject are not really present. Maybe if we can say about biology, they appear in books, but sexual education is not really present at all, or if it is, then it presents homosexuality as perversion.’

Information on health and life-threatening aspects of homosexual lifestyle should not be censored, argues Krzysztof Bosak of the coalition League of Polish Families:

‘Gay activists want to impose on society the view that homosexuality is normal. But social science brings evidence to the contrary. We see how gay lifestyle destroys people’s health, we see higher levels of pathologies, addictions, suicides, violence and abuse among people who embrace the homosexual lifestyle. This is definitely not something to be presented to our children as normal, natural and healthy.’

Among other accusations that have been raised against the presence of gay activists at educational centers is their alleged involvement with the movement that intends to normalize other sexual preferences, including pedophilia. Gay activist Artur Jedyński denies these kinds of charges.

‘I was also accused, at the University of Szczecin, of promotion of pedophilia. I could not really find words to express how angry I am about such accusations.’

But MP Krzysztof Bosak does not find the pedophilia allegations totally groundless.

‘There is reason to be concerned about the links of the international homosexual movement with the circles that postulate lowering the age of consent. This is why we should pay special attention to protect our children from being approached by these groups, whose intentions we cannot be sure about.’

Bosak stresses, that the oppostition to the gay agenda does not target individual gay people, because in Poland they have equal rights just like everyone else. He notes that Poland was one of the first countries to decriminalize homosexual acts:

‘What we see as a threat to democracy and public order is the propaganda of gay lifestyle in the public sphere, especially homosexual indoctrination at schools. This is a very important distinction. Nobody is attacking people with homosexual tendencies. What we oppose is the dangerous political and social movement that uses the problems of gay people to push forward an agenda that is dangerous to the foundations of our civilization.’

If passed, the legislation banning gay activism from access to schools could be implemented with the beginning of the new school year in Fall.